Date: Monday, 09 May 2011

China has long been one of the most difficult assignments in journalism. It is also one of the most important. For over 60 years, a handful of reporters for the American media have, through their coverage, shaped both U.S. and international perceptions of China.

Former CNN Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy, now a Senior Fellow at the US-China Institute at the University of Southern California, has gathered, for the first time ever, the perceptions, experiences and insights of these correspondents in Assignment: China, a fascinating seven-part documentary film series.

Two segments will be featured: One looks at the American correspondents who covered the Chinese civil war from 1945-49. The other focuses on the first generation of U.S. reporters allowed to open news bureaus in Beijing after the normalization of Sino-American relations in 1979.

The reporters whose stories are told in the two episodes are legendary figures in the world of journalism. They include:
- Seymour Topping, who covered the Chinese civil war for the Associated Press and later became Managing Editor of the New York Times
- Roy Rowan, who was Life magazine’s Shanghai correspondent from 1947-49
- John Roderick, who covered China for the Associated Press from 1945-48, including seven months in Yenan with Communist leaders, and later returned to reopen the AP bureau in Beijing in 1979
- Annalee Jacoby, who covered China in the mid-1940s for Time and was the co-author, with Theodore White, of the acclaimed book Thunder Out of China
- Henry Lieberman, who was the New York Times China correspondent from 1945-49
- Doak Barnett, who reported from China for the Chicago Daily News from 1947-49
- Among the others who feature in the documentary are virtually all the journalists who opened the first U.S. news bureaus after normalization in 1979:
 Richard Bernstein (Time)
 Fox Butterfield (The New York Times)
 Frank Ching (The Wall Street Journal)
 Bruce Dunning (CBS News)
 Sandy Gilmour (NBC News)
 Jim Laurie (ABC News)
 Melinda Liu (Newsweek)
 Jay Matthews (The Washington Post)
 Linda Mathews, (Los Angeles Times)

Described by the Washington Post’s current Beijing correspondent Keith Richburg as “a must-see for anyone interested in the media, China, or both,” by former CBS News anchor Dan Rather as a “great project”, and by former U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord as “invaluable for classroom use and more broadly for the general public,” Assignment: China offers a rare – and entertaining - glimpse of some crucial moments in the history of journalism and China.

After the screening, Mike, who is also a distinguished China watcher who spent eight years as CNN’s first Beijing bureau chief, will share his own experiences as a Beijing correspondent, and answer questions about both the film and current affairs in China.